Children raised in single-mother families are at increased risk for psychopathology, but the mechanisms that help explain this relationship are understudied. In a community sample of diverse adolescents (N= 385, 52% female, 48% Caucasian) and their mothers, we hypothesized that single mothers would be more likely than cohabitating mothers to engage in negative parenting behaviors, which would predict adolescent psychopathology prospectively. Single mothers were more likely to engage in psychologically controlling behaviors, which predicted to their adolescent offspring experiencing higher rates of depressive symptoms and externalizing disorders. Girls were more susceptible to depressive symptoms via psychologically controlling parenting than boys in single-mother families. Further, single mothers were more likely to engage in rejecting parenting behaviors, which predicted to a higher prevalence of adolescent externalizing disorders. Surprisingly, rejection in single-mother families predicted to less severe anxiety symptoms in adolescents relative to two-parent families. It is likely that single mothers are not inherently inferior parents relative to cohabitating mothers; rather, their parenting practices are often compromised by a myriad of demands and stressors. Consistent with this postulate, low socioeconomic status was associated with single motherhood and negative parenting behaviors. Clinical implications and study limitations are discussed.

Emotion regulation has been implicated in the etiology of depression. A first step in adaptive emotion regulation involves emotional clarity, the ability to recognize and differentiate one’s emotional experience. As family members are critical in facilitating emotional understanding and communication, we examined the impact of family functioning on adolescent emotional clarity and depressive symptoms. We followed 364 adolescents (ages 12–17; 52.5% female; 51.4 % Caucasian, 48.6% African American) and their mothers over 2 years (3 time points) and assessed emotional clarity, depressive symptoms, and adolescent-reported and mother-reported family functioning. Emotional clarity mediated the relationship between adolescent-reported family functioning and depressive symptoms at all time points cross-sectionally, and according to mother-reported family functioning at Time 1 only. There was no evidence of longitudinal mediation for adolescent- or mother-reported family functioning. Thus, family functioning, emotional clarity, and depressive symptoms are strongly related constructs during various time points in adolescence, which has important implications for intervention, especially within the family unit.

These findings shed light on affective regulation factors relevant to the experience of depressive symptoms and NSSI, and the promotion of well-being.

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is highly prevalent among late adolescents and predicts the onset of suicidal ideation and behavior. Although research has established an association between the behavioral approach system (BAS) and NSSI, less research has explored mechanisms underlying this relationship. The authors examined negative and positive emotion regulation patterns, as well as the BAS-relevant cognitive style of self-criticism, as potential mechanisms through which a hypersensitive BAS might be related to NSSI frequency. Late adolescents (N=177) with high and moderate BAS levels completed measures of self-criticism, positive emotion regulation, brooding, and both lifetime and last year frequency of NSSI. Results indicated that self-criticism and positive emotion dampening independently mediated the relationship between BAS and last year frequency of NSSI. Self-criticism also mediated the relationship between BAS and lifetime frequency of NSSI. Results suggest that cognitive and emotion-regulatory styles may help to explain why high BAS individuals are likely to engage in NSSI.

Although research consistently suggests that adolescents in single-mother families are at increased risk for depression, the mechanisms that explain this relationship are unclear. In a community sample of adolescents (N = 368; ages 12–16; 50% female; 50% White) and their mothers (42% single), adolescents completed measures of depressive symptoms, rumination, and depressogenic inferential style at baseline and two yearly follow-ups. Mothers reported on stressful events that occurred in the child’s life from birth until baseline. Adolescents raised by single mothers, relative to partnered mothers, experienced more childhood stressors and higher rumination levels at one-year follow-up. Additionally, higher rumination mediated the relationship between single motherhood and greater youth depressive symptoms at the two-year follow-up. Clinical implications and developmental considerations are discussed.